\\CHINA has warned the UK not to interfere with Hong Kong following the imposition of a new national security law, as one pro-democracy campaigner begged for international support.
\nAmbassador Liu Xiaoming said the UK\u2019s offer of a path to citizenship for up to three million Hong Kongers amounted to \u201cgross interference\u201d.<\/p>\n
The offer came after Beijing brought in the controversial and sweeping new law.
\nOpponents say it erodes the territory\u2019s freedoms as a semi-autonomous region.<\/p>\n
Activist Joshua Wong had earlier called for more support, asking his fellow Hong Kongers and the wider world not to \u201ckowtow\u201d to Beijing.<\/p>\n
But Ambassador Liu said he hoped the UK would reconsider its offer.\u201cThe UK government keeps making irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong affairs,\u201d he told a virtual news conference.<\/p>\n
The ambassador said a decision on exactly how Beijing intended to respond to the citizenship offer would be made once it knew the details.<\/p>\n
Mr Liu also warned the UK that if it decided against using Chinese tech giant Huawei\u2019s technology to build its 5G network, this would send a \u201cvery bad message to other Chinese businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n
The UK has argued that China has reneged on an agreement that took effect in 1997, which offered certain freedoms to Hong Kong for 50 years in return for handing the territory back to Beijing.<\/p>\n
Later on Monday, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged China not to interfere if Hong Kongers with British National (Overseas) status sought to come to the UK.
\n\u201cWe would expect China to understand the importance of adhering to international law,\u201d the spokesman said.
\nHe added: \u201cWe are currently assessing the national security law and its legal ramifications in terms of extradition with Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are already extensive extradition safeguards in the UK. The courts are required to bar a person\u2019s extradition to any country if it would be incompatible with their human rights or if the request appears to be motivated by their political opinion.\u201d
\nAlso on Monday, Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp said they had \u201cpaused\u201d processing requests for information from the Hong Kong government and law enforcement agencies \u201cpending further assessment of the impact of the national security law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The assessment will include \u201cformal human rights due diligence and consultations with human rights experts\u201d, according to a statement.<\/p>\n
\u2018Barely veiled warning\u2019
\nAmbassador Liu is never anything less than robust. His condemnations of what Beijing regards as British interference in China\u2019s internal affairs are familiar.But with Britain and China now at loggerheads over at least two major issues \u2013 Hong Kong and Huawei \u2013 the sense of a fraying relationship is stronger than ever.<\/p>\n
All efforts to thwart the will of 1.4 billion Chinese people, Mr Liu warned, were doomed to failure. When the principles of sovereign equality and non-interference were violated, he said, then relationships would inevitably suffer \u201csetbacks, even retrogression\u201d.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to Huawei, Boris Johnson\u2019s suggestion last week that China might now be seen as a \u201chostile state vendor\u201d is clearly taken as a serious affront. Chinese officials, the ambassador said, had never described Britain this way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\\CHINA has warned the UK not to interfere with Hong Kong following the imposition of a new national security law, as one pro-democracy campaigner begged for international support. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming said the UK\u2019s offer of a path to citizenship for up to three million Hong Kongers amounted to \u201cgross interference\u201d. The offer came after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12],"tags":[792],"class_list":{"0":"post-25001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-policy","10":"tag-china-zimbabwe-relations"},"yoast_head":"\n